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  "documentTitle": "Berkeley Lights (BLI)",
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      "text": "Our interviews painted a consistent picture of a one-product company conceived on a fundamentally flawed premise and which never found product-market fit.",
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      "text": "Ex-executives and employees pointed to BLI’s semiconductor roots as its fatal flaw and the source of its troubles. The founders thought they had a cool way to move cells inside a chip, and then struggled and failed to find a value proposition or problem that their technology actually solves. Our interviews painted a consistent picture of a one-product company conceived on a fundamentally flawed premise and which never found product-market fit. We note comments by 3 BLI ex-employees below: an ex-executive, a product manager, and a scientist.",
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      "text": "BLI never figured out a value proposition or the problem their technology actually solves. This wasn't like a typical company that I worked at. It was like they built a technology thinking it is going to do something, and then they had to figure out where to apply it.",
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      "text": "BLI was founded on the concept of a “cool technology” but could never figure out an application for it. The company started as this cool technology that could move cells. So, now what do you do with the with it? They tried to do many different research applications on it. None of it really stuck.",
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      "text": "BLI has struggled and failed for a long time to find product-market fit. It is not a trivial task to find product-market fit... It was like, they found some great phenomena. Let's see what we can do with it.",
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      "text": "\"it is not a trivial task to find product-market fit. I think the entire technology came out of a prominent professor at UC Berkeley. It sounds very cool that you can move cells with electromagnetic waves and that you can repurpose semiconductor technology to assist with this movement. There was a search for a long time for, like, what could be applications where this is useful? The origin of the company wasn't a huge problem that no one else can figure out, so let's find the best solution. It was like, they found some great phenomena. Let's see what we can do with it. And sometimes, it does take a long time to figure out the best applications.\" — Former BLI executive; \"I can give a little bit of history on the company side. The company started as this cool technology that could move cells. So, now what do you do with the with it? They tried to do many different research applications on it. None of it really stuck.\" — Former BLI product manager; \"This wasn't like a typical company that I worked at. It was like they built a technology thinking it is going to do something, and then they had to figure out where to apply it ...I think a lot of people get into the wow, it's cool, but how exactly does the rubber hit the road? What application am I running? What's the data on the application? Is it robust? What's the price point for me to run it? What's my value proposition?\" — Former BLI executive",
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      "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts",
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      "text": "1) Introduction to the real Berkeley Lights; warning signs of a looming collapse and other red flags",
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